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The Barbarians Are at the Gate

The barbarians have existed since the beginning of time. They possess an insatiable thirst to conquer, destroy, and replace other cultures. Their motives range from acquiring wealth and land, fulfillment of destiny, and spreading their religion, economic, or governmental system.

Sometimes they conquer through overwhelming military strength. They breach the inferior defenses of the targeted culture, and subdue them into submission.

When they cannot conquer through military superiority, they wait. Patiently. Scheming. Conniving. Seeking any opening to subjugate their prey. Of all the weapons they use to conquer, their greatest is the power to divide their victims.

Today, you are their target.

The barbarians hate your religion. They delegitimize your faith, your icons, your holy days, and your religious practices. Their goal, like all conquerors, is to destroy your sacred places of worship, and to erect their religious sites over your hallowed sites, until all remnants of your theology are obliterated.

The barbarians use propaganda to confuse and manipulate you. They twist the words of your leaders, lie, contrive stories, and divide groups within your culture. They declare your laws to be illegitimate, and impose their laws on your society. They engage in continuous provocation, wearing you down until you relent. Eventually, they will replace your very concept of government with their own.

They mock and undermine your family, your community, and your civic groups – weakening them to the point of collapse. Then they endeavor to dismantle them, breaking the very foundation of your culture. They impose their values, their history, and their religion on your children when they educate them. Over time, your own children will turn against you, as the barbarians indoctrinate them.

They deride your great literary works – banning them on any pretense, so that no one will remember the renowned writings your culture once authored.

They disparage your cherished heroes, remove statues and monuments, and erect their own to replace them.

They have no interest in your classical music or your art. Your traditional melodies will soon be forgotten. Your revered art is destroyed or disregarded.

They legitimize their language, and delegitimize yours, until your language is replaced.

Your cultural achievements are irrelevant to them – and even disdained by them. Your educational attainment is superfluous, and only a threat to them. They allow no protests, silence your speech, and criminalize your cultural differences. They rename everything in your culture – including cities, buildings, infrastructure, and even people.

Some try to placate the barbarians. They entice them with compromise and wealth. They appease them with sympathetic words, government positions, and authority. They even embrace much of the barbarian’s culture, attempting to demonstrate that they mean them no harm, that they are welcome, and that their culture is respected. They even adopt some of their traditions, religion, art, entertainment, heroes, and holidays.

Outwardly, the barbarians embrace such outreach. However, they will not assimilate, and only interpret such attempts as weakness. Their ultimate goal is not acceptance, but subjugation and eradication. They only take advantage of your good nature in an attempt to conquer you.

Since the beginning of time, the menacing barbarians have battered the gates of other cultures. When possible, they use their military strength to conquer. But when military superiority is insufficient, and when no standing army can possibly defeat you, you face a more imposing challenge.

The barbarians are already here, dividing you, and living among you. Without bloodshed, and with some popular support, they sow the seeds of your cultural destruction. They are either unrecognized or are dismissed by most people, but their harvest will mean the evisceration of your culture. Eventually, your society will die as you succumb to them.